


Heads

by zorac



Series: Echo Park - an anthology [13]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-23 11:22:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11988783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zorac/pseuds/zorac
Summary: Max and Chloe get some unexpected help when the SHIELD team show up to investigate a temporal anomaly. Can they all work together to stop the storm and save Arcadia Bay?Major spoilers forLife is Strange.





	Heads

**Author's Note:**

> I really don’t remember where the idea for this crossover came from; I’m sure nobody ever asked for it…
> 
> Timeline-wise, I’m assuming the MCU stuff happens around its release dates, so this takes shortly before _The Dark World_ and around the time season 1 of _SHIELD_ (I'm using that as an excuse for Coulson et al to have been too busy investigating this to pick up Skye  & Ward. Bonus!)

Max and Chloe were headed to the End of the World party when the man in black called out to them.

“Maxine Caulfield?”

“Max,” she replied automatically as he walked over, “never Maxine.”

“My apologies. I’m Agent Phil Coulson with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.”

“So?” asked Chloe, “do you know any Avengers?”

“Actually, I helped recruit a few of them.”

“Cool. So, what brings you to the ass end of Oregon? And make it quick; we’re trying to catch a killer.”

“SHIELD picked up some strange temporal anomalies coming from Arcadia Bay; my team was sent to investigate, and we have reason to believe that you may be involved.”

Max laughed bitterly. “Oh, I’m involved alright. It’s probably easier to show you…” She held up her hand and rewound.

* * *

Max dragged Chloe over to the man in the suit. “Hi,” she said, sticking out her hand, “Max Caulfield. You must be Phil Coulson, Agent of SHIELD.” Aside to Chloe, she remarked, “he helped assemble the Avengers. Anyway, I guess that I’m the temporal anomaly you’ve been sent to investigate.”

“Do you mind if I ask how you did that?” enquired Coulson after a moment’s surprise. “Professional curiosity.”

“Easy; you told me all that the first time we met, then I simply rewound time and started again. Seemed more straightforward than trying to explain.”

“I’m impressed, but I’m afraid there’s more going on here than just you. We detected numerous minor anomalies around the town, but they all seem to be connected back to a large source somewhere out there.” He gestured towards the ocean.

“The storm,” said Max. Coulson gave her a curious look, so she explained. “On Monday morning, I had a vision of a massive tornado destroying Arcadia Bay. That was just before I saw Chloe get shot and my rewind power first got activated. I’ve had a couple of other visions since then; enough to know that it’s coming tomorrow.”

“I hate to interrupt,” said Chloe, “but we’re supposed to be tracking down a murdering piece of shit before he hurts anyone else. He’s probably in there,” she gestured at the swimming pool, “right now, picking out his next victim.”

“Agent May.” Max jumped as a woman seemed to materialize from the shadows. “Why don’t you help these young ladies; I need to head back to the bus and get Fitzsimmons looking into this.”

“You should probably mention that too.” May pointed up at the twin moons.

“Ten bucks says Fitz is the first to make a crack about Tatooine.”

May rolled her eyes as Coulson left. “So,” she asked, “this guy you’re looking for. What’s he done?”

“He likes to drug and kidnap young women,” replied Chloe, “he has an honest-to-God underground lair where he poses them and takes pictures while they’re unconscious. One of his victims would have killed herself earlier this week if Max hadn’t been able to stop her. And another, my friend Rachel, she disappeared a few months ago…”

Max took over. “In the bunker, we found dozens of binders with photographs of the different girls. The ones of Rachel – she didn’t just look drugged, so we went to the junkyard where the pictures were taken.” She took a deep breath. “We found her body, just a couple of hours ago.”

“Why not just take this to the police?”

“The Prescotts literally own this town. We know that at least some of the cops are in their pocket. There’s no justice there.”

“Alright. Do you have a picture of this boy?”

Max pulled out her phone. “Just a moment.” The phone made a tone and after a moment she froze. “It’s a text from Nathan. He knows we found the body and he’s going to get rid of the evidence.”

“We need to get to American Rust,” Chloe called, as she ran back to her truck and climbed in, “come on!”

May got in on the driver’s side, pushing Chloe into the middle. “I’ll drive.”

They made it to he junkyard in record time. “I’ll check the perimeter,” said May, “shout if you see him.”

The girls raced for the spot where they had found Rachel’s remains earlier, but the ground didn’t look to have been disturbed since they left. Chloe slumped to the ground and started sobbing again. Max sat opposite her. “I don’t understand. If he’s not coming here, why did Nathan send me that text?”

She felt a slight prick in her neck. “He didn’t,” said a voice. It wasn’t Nathan’s. Max turned to look, but her world seemed to be moving in slow motion. She saw Mark Jefferson with a syringe in one hand and a pistol in the other. She tried to lift her hand to rewind, but something seemed to be blocking her power. She watched helplessly as he raised the gun to point it at Chloe, and a shot rang out.

Max saw Jefferson lurch backwards, then a moment later Agent May arrived and kicked the gun from his hand. “I really despise men who prey on teenage girls,” she said in a cold voice, then hit him with the butt of her gun, knocking him unconscious. Max managed a faint smile before the blackness claimed her too.

* * *

When she came to, Max found herself in what looked like a high-tech laboratory. “Oh, good,” said a woman with a British accent, “you’re awake. I was able to counteract the anesthetic you were injected with, so you’ve only been out for an hour or so.” Max sat up slowly, and immediately found herself enveloped in a pair of arms.

“Thank fuck you’re alright,” said Chloe in her ear.

“What happened? Where’s Jefferson, and what about Nathan?”

“The scary Asian chick took your crazy teacher away for ‘interrogation’.” She used actual air quotes. “From the look on her face, I almost feel sorry for him. Almost.”

“Agent May is very good at… persuading people to talk. I’m sure she’ll have answers soon. How are you feeling? Any side affects from the anesthesia?”

“No, I feel fine.”

“Good,” said another British voice, male this time, “because I’d like to run some tests. You seem to be connected to the main temporal anomaly, and I’m hoping that if we study you, we might be able to understand more about it.”

“Okay, but please hurry.” She saw the door open and Coulson came in, then addressed him, “if my visions were correct, we’ve only got a few hours until that thing destroys the town.”

“That would fit with our tracking. I’ve already called in reinforcements; we’re going to start an evacuation so that if we can’t stop that storm, at least we can get everyone to safety. I do have one other idea, but it’s a bit of a nuclear option. In the mean time, anything you can do to help Fitzsimmons would be greatly appreciated.” His phone rang, and he looked down at it. “Fury. I have to go.”

“Um, which of you is Fitzsimmons?” asked Max.

“He’s Fitz, she’s Simmons,” supplied Chloe helpfully. “They’re the resident science nerds.”

“So, how can I help?”

It was Fitz who responded, “I’d like to do some scans, see if I can detect what’s happening when you use your temporal powers. I’m hoping that will give us some clues about the storm.”

“Okay, what do you want me to do?”

He lead her to an open area with half a dozen strange-looking devices ringed around it, and directed her into the middle. “Just give me a moment to activate these, then you can use your power… okay, when you’re ready.”

“Um, how long do you ned me to rewind?”

“Fifteen, twenty seconds? In your own time.”

“I just need to wait a little longer or I’ll rewind to before you turned your gadgets on.”

“Ah. Good point.”

Max waited a few moments longer, then held up her hand and wound back to just after the instruments were activated.

“…you’re ready,” says Fitz again.

“Already done,” replied Max. “I just rewound about twenty seconds.”

“Yeah, I’m picking up something odd. It’s very faint, more like an echo.”

“Perhaps we’re now in a parallel timeline from the one where Max used her power,” posited Simmons, “so an echo is all we can pick up.”

“That’s certainly possible. If so, I’m not sure how we can work around that and get some useful readings.”

“Um, are any of those things portable?” asked Max.

“I suppose I could rig one up with a battery pack, why?”

“I can carry things with me while I’m rewinding. That way you could get readings from inside the process.”

He nodded thoughtfully, “yes, that should work. Just give me a couple of minutes.” True to his word, he very quickly had one of the sensors hooked up to a backpack containing some batteries. “This may be overkill, but as I don’t know how the temporal changes will affect the equipment, I though it better to be safe than sorry.” After helping Max put on the backpack, he connected the sensor and handed it to her.

Stepping back, he watched the chronometer. Almost immediately, it jumped forward around thirty seconds. “Done,” announced Max.

“I was going to say that was quick,” remarked Simmons, “but under the circumstances it would seem a rather meaningless observation.”

Fitz retrieved the sensor pack from Max. “Hopefully the observations from this will be anything but meaningless.” He hooked the device up to a computer and started bringing up windows containing graphs and diagrams. “I’m seeing some very high-density tachyon readings.” After a couple of minutes, he brought up a simulation window showing a figure with particles spinning round its head like a tornado.

“That shape. It looks exactly like the storm in my vision. Is it… is it me? Am I causing the storm?”

“No,” said Fitz, “if anything, it’s the other way around”. He pointed to a thin line coming into the top of the diagram, “this stream of tachyons is what seems to be powering your ability, and it’s coming from exactly the direction of where we believe the storm to be.”

“Does this help us understand what the storm is, or how to stop it?” Coulson had returned from his call.

“Not yet. I mean, it’s useful data, but mystic meteorological phenomena aren’t really my area of expertise.”

“Well, fortunately for you we have such an expert. Agent May is just bringing her in now – which means I need to make myself scarce.” Coulson departed rapidly.

“What’s that all about?” asked Chloe.

“I honestly have no idea,” replied Simmons.

A few moments later, May showed two other women into the room. One of them immediately headed over to the two scientists. “Doctor Simmons, Doctor Fitz, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise, Doctor Foster,” replied Fitz, “I read your paper on Einstein-Rosen Bridges.” Within moments, they were speaking a language which, to Max’s ear, might as well have been Star Trek technobabble. The other newcomer sidled over to Max and Chloe.

“Hi, I’m Darcy, Jane’s assistant. This looks like the less science, more fun side of the room. I love your hair!”

“Thanks! I’m Chloe, and this is Max.”

“So, what did _you_ do to have SHIELD ruin your day?” asked Darcy.

“I can rewind time,” supplied Max.

“Let me guess: unpleasant side effects?”

“Headaches, nose bleeds, giant tornado coming to destroy the town.”

“Huh,” said Darcy. “I guess that’s why they were asking where Thor was, and why they brought us in. We’ve done a fair bit of storm-chasing in our time.”

“Wait. Back up. Why would SHIELD be asking you about Thor?” queried Chloe.

“Oh, he’s kinda Jane’s boyfriend.” She paused. “It’s complicated…”

Chloe turned, took a good look at Jane Foster, then nodded her head appreciatively. “Go Thor!”

Darcy snorted. “I know, right? To be honest, I’m not really sure what she sees in him. I mean yes, he’s a hunk of manly goodness, and he’s got that whole ‘God of Thunder’ thing going on, but he’s not exactly a sparkling conversationalist.”

“Maybe he’s just really good in bed,” suggested Chloe, causing Max to blush and Darcy to laugh.

Agent May returned, her expression dark. “Your teacher has been very talkative,” she said without preamble. “He confessed to several years of kidnapping teenage girls for his perverted photoshoots. Actually seemed proud of it.” She looked disgusted. “He did deny any knowledge of what happened to your friend Rachel, and blamed that entirely on his apprentice.”

“I suppose that could be true,” Max admitted grudgingly. “Nathan included himself in some of the photos of Rachel; all the other binders only had pictures of the victims.”

“Or he could just be trying to wriggle out of a murder charge,” Chloe replied bitterly.

“Don’t worry, there are still dozens of counts of kidnapping. He might not be facing he death penalty, but he will be going away for life. I’ve got the local PD out looking for Nathan.”

Chloe laughed derisively. "His family own the police. I don’t think they’ll be looking too hard.

May gave her a grim smile. “With SHIELD looking over their shoulders? Oh, I think they will.”

Max glanced over towards the eggheads. “So, your science team _are_ going to find a way to stop that storm, right?”

“If anyone can, it’s them,” she replied.

“Well, Jane’s pretty smart,” said Darcy at the same time.

“You’re not exactly reassuring me,” muttered Max.

May shrugged. “There’s never certainty with something like this, but… we do have a backup plan.”

Chloe was looking out of a window. “I really hope so, because the geek squad are just about out of time.” The rest of them crowded round, looking out to see the storm from Max’s vision appearing over the horizon.

“Whoah,” said Darcy, “you guys weren’t kidding, were you?”

“Chloe’s right,” said May, “we need to activate plan B right now.” She took off at a fast clip.

“What’s she going to do, call the Avengers?” asked Max.

“That’s going to help how?” Chloe replied sarcastically. “It’s not like Hulk can smash a tornado, Tony Stark would probably be more help in here than out here, and we’ve already got our token ass-kicking woman.”

“Or we could, I dunno, send a storm god to stop a storm,” suggested Darcy.

“Could he do that?”

“Buggered if I know, but it would be a neat way to solve the problem. Very _deus ex hammer-a_.”

Max winced at Darcy’s terrible pun, then turned back to he window just in time to see something flying low overhead. “Was that some kind of bird?”

“Too fast,” replied Chloe, “must be a ’plane.”

Darcy peered out. “Nope, it’s just Thor.” They watched as he headed into the storm, and lightning crackled.

“I’m not sure that’s helping,” remarked Chloe after a little while." As if he’d heard her, Thor reappeared. He hovered for a moment, then began flying around the storm in the opposite direction to its spin; first slowly, then faster and faster.

“I think it’s slowing down!” said Max excitedly. Sure enough, the storm’s rate of spin began to decrease, and the clouds to dissipate. There was more lightning, but they could now see that it was striking from the storm towards the thunder god. Eventually, it came to a complete stop, and the remains simply began to drift away.

“Okay, that was pretty cool,” said Chloe.

“Meh,” replied Darcy, “I’ve seen him fight a giant robot that could shoot a death ray from its face.”

“Awesome!”

“Mostly I remember running away from the killer robot while thinking, ‘Oh God, Oh God, we’re all gonna die!’”

“I guess we’re all living in ‘interesting times’,” said Max.

Darcy turned to where the science team were still huddled around a monitor. “Hey, Jane, you can relax; it looks like your boyfriend already saved the day.”

Her head popped up. “Thor?”

“Yeah, he flew in and unwound the tornado or some shit.”

“Huh. Is he… still here?”

“Coming this way,” reported Max from the window, “is he psychic or something?”

“He probably just saw the giant SHIELD logo painted on the top of the plane,” suggested Fitz. Jane was already headed outside; the rest of them followed her. Max pulled out her camera; there was no time to pick her shot, so she simply snapped a picture of the descending hero and hoped for the best. The Polaroid slid out of the front of the camera, and she slipped both back into her bag.

“Greetings, Jane Foster,” boomed Thor as he landed, “I did not expect to find you here.”

“Well, you know me and storms…” she replied awkwardly.

“Yeah, thanks for the assist, big guy,” said Darcy.

“It was nothing. The All-Father once battled a storm which could destroy entire planets. Its power is now trapped within Mjolnir.” He tapped the hammer for emphasis.

“That explains _so much_ ,” muttered Darcy.

Ignoring her, Thor turned back to Jane. “Have you concluded your business here?” She nodded. “Then shall we depart?” When she nodded again, he casually picked her up with one arm, then raised the hammer and shot up into the sky.

“I’ll be fine!” Darcy shouted, glaring after them. “I can, y’know, walk home or something…”

“I’m sure SHIELD can organize some transport for you tomorrow,” said Simmons.

“Thanks,” she replied sourly. “So, what do you guys think of Thor now you’ve seen him in the flesh?”

“I do kinda get the appeal,” admitted Max.

“I prefer brains over brawn,” answered Simmons, glancing at Fitz.

“ _So_ not my type,” declared Chloe.

“No?”

“He’s a guy,” she clarified.

“Oh…” Darcy looked at her with new interest.

“Look, if you need a place to crash tonight while these guys organize your ride home…”

“That would be great, thanks!”

“Awesome! See ya, Max.” The two of them made a rapid departure.

“What just happened?” asked Fitz.

“I believe it’s what the kids today refer to as a ‘hook-up’,” replied Simmons.

“Really?” snorted Max. “You guys are like, how old?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “And I really don’t envy Darcy tomorrow morning when Chloe wakes up and remembers about Rachel being dead.”

There was a long, awkward pause. “So,” said Fitz eventually, “we should, uh, check what’s happened to your abilities now that the storm’s gone.”

“Yeah, sure.” Max held up her hand, and focused. Nothing. She tried again. Still nothing. “Looks like my rewind is gone too.”

Fitz nodded. “That’s what I expected. Without that storm, there’s nothing to power it.”

“It’s probably for the best, as long as Chloe can keep from getting herself killed…”

Coulson came striding down the ramp. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Apparently they had more… coupley business to attend to,” supplied Simmons.

“Fine. Fury has another mission for us, so we need to get going. Max, we’re going to drop your ‘friend’ Jefferson off with the FBI; Agent May found some similar incidents in places he lived previously, and they’re suddenly very interested in him.”

“Good. I hope they put him away for a very long time.”

“Well, the police just found the body of Nathan Prescott, so now he’s facing kidnapping and murder charges in multiple states. A lifetime in maximum security is the very best he can hope for.” He paused. “Anyway, thanks for the assist with the whole temporal anomaly thing.”

“You’re welcome, but I’m pretty sure that Thor deserves most of the credit. At this point I’m mostly just relieved that the whole thing isn’t my fault.”

“Understandable, but as long as you can keep your abilities under control, you should be fine.”

“That won’t be a problem, seeing as they’re gone.”

“They were tied into the storm,” explained Fitz.

“Pity. I was thinking of coming back to recruit you in a year or two; power like that would’ve been useful to have on the team.”

Max blinked slowly, uncertain as to how she felt about that revelation. “I’m guessing that retro camera skills aren’t quite so handy. But hey, if you ever need an official photographer for the Avengers or something…”

“I’ll be sure to give you a call.”

“Do you even have my number?”

“I’m with SHIELD,” he replied with a straight face, “we have everyone’s number.”

“Right. Anyway, thanks for saving the town, and for dealing with Jefferson.”

“It was my pleasure,” said Agent May, in a tone of voice that made her shiver a little. Max threw them a sloppy salute, and then headed back towards the school. A few moments later, her phone began to ring.

“Hi, Kate, how’re you doing?”

“I’m fine, Max. Are you okay? The storm…”

“Yeah, that was pretty wild.”

“People here are saying it was some sort of superhero who came and got rid of it.”

“The mighty Thor.”

“You saw him?” There was a hint of awe in Kate’s voice.

“Yeah, Chloe and me got picked up by these SHIELD agents last night. And… there’s some other stuff you should know; it’s about what happened to you.” She went on to tell Kate the story of what had happened since they first met Coulson, and everything they’d learned about Jefferson, Nathan, and the Dark Room. When she was done, there was silence from he other end of the line. “Kate?” She prompted eventually.

“I’m still here, I’m just… not sure how I’m supposed to feel about any of this.”

“I don’t think you’re _supposed_ to feel anything in particular. You’re allowed to feel… however you feel.”

“So… it’s okay that I’m not sad about Nathan’s death?”

“After what he did to you, to Rachel, to Chloe, to all those other girls? I think you’re entitled to be _glad_ he’s dead.”

Kate hesitated. “I’m not _glad_ he’s dead, but I _am_ glad that he and Mr. Jefferson won’t be able to hurt anyone else.” She sighed. “I think I just want to forget about all of this and move on with my life.”

“That’s probably for the best.” There was another long pause.

“So, you really met Thor?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say _met_. I did get a photo, though.”

“Of course you did… Is Chloe okay too?”

“Yeah, she’s great. Looks like she got a date out of it.”

“With Thor?” If she detected a slight hint of jealousy in Kate’s voice, Max sure as hell wasn’t going to comment on it.

“No,” she replied firmly as she pushed through the door of the Prescott Dormitory. “With Thor’s girlfriend’s assistant. She’s rather more Chloe’s type, to be honest. Look, I’m almost back at my room, and I really need to crash. Maybe I can see you sometime tomorrow?”

“I hope so. My parents are supposed to be picking me up from the hospital to take me back home, but now that I know…” she trailed off. “I think I’m going to try and persuade them to let me stay in school. At the very least, I’ll come find you to say goodbye.”

“Okay, well I’ll see you soon, then.”

“Goodnight, Max.”

“’Night, Kate.”

Max closed the door of her room and let out a sigh of relief. _Is that it?_ she thought. _Is it really over? The storm’s gone, so are Nathan and Jefferson, Chloe’s safe…_ She pulled the Polaroid she’d taken earlier out of her bag and looked at it for the first time. Thor was maybe a couple of feet off the ground, there was lightning crackling around Mjolnir, and his cloak billowed up behind him as he came in to land.

_That’s a pretty awesome shot, although not quite an_ Everyday _Hero; besides, I already missed the contest._ Max dropped the photo on her desk, stripped off, and crawled into bed. Exhaustion claimed her a few moments later.

**Author's Note:**

> Series notes: So, yeah, this story has pretty much nothing to do with its namesake song (it was originally slated for _Purple_ before I came up with a better idea for that one).


End file.
